This invention relates to a string of electrically powered ornaments such as a string of lights used for such purposes as decorating Christmas trees and other symbolic things including commercial branding, showroom displays, etc. More particularly, the invention relates to electrically wired ornament strings and provides means to assist in determining which of the various ornaments in a string has failed. In the following description, the invention is described as it applies particularly to a string of Christmas lights, but it is to be understood that this particular application of the invention is only exemplary of its many uses, and the invention is not to be so narrowly construed except as recited in the appended claims.
Light strings frequently are made with fifty or more lights, and when a light fails generally the others remain lit. Occasionally, however, something happens to a bulb that breaks the electrical circuit and all of the lights in the string go out. When that occurs, it is necessary to check each bulb in the string to find the one that failed. When that light is replaced, the entire string will light. Light testers are available to assist in checking all the lights in a string, but it is often difficult to follow the string when it is wound about the branches of a tree and/or used in close proximity with other strings.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide means to assist a person in tracing a light string so that the bulbs may be tested in order without skipping any of the lights in a string or unknowingly retesting any of them.
Another object of the present invention is to assist a person using a light tester so that it may be used most efficiently.
In accordance with the present invention, the string of ornaments, whether they be lights or other electrically powered elements, are sequentially identified by applying indicia to each ornament in the string such as by numbering or lettering each of the ornaments in sequence. This will enable one to sequentially trace the ornaments in a particular string regardless of how the string is displayed or presented so that each ornament in the string may be tested to identify and replace the failed ornament, to reactivate all of the ornaments in the string.
These and other objects and features of the invention will be better understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of selected embodiments thereof, presented for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing.